The 9th Judgment

Arnaz Battle speared the slightly overthrown pass, tucked it in, and followed his blockers downfield. At the Rams' forty, he cut to the right sideline and raced, untouched, to the end zone.

I was jumping up and down. Joe grabbed me and gave me a great big kiss, five stars at least. I heard someone shout from the tier above, a loudmouth yelling over the crowd noise, "Get a room!"

I turned and saw that it was one of the squatters we'd evicted. He was loaded and he was a jerk. I yelled back, "Get a life!" And, to my amazement, the lout got out of his seat and headed down to where Joe and I were sitting.

And he stood there, towering over us.

"What do you think?" the guy shouted, saliva spraying out of his mouth. "You think because you can afford these seats, you can do anything you want?"

I didn't know what he was talking about, but I didn't like what I saw. When a guy goes bug-nuts at a sporting event, the next thing you know, a lot of other guys want in on the action.

"Why don't you go back to the seat you paid for?" Joe said, standing up. My fianc is over six feet and solid, but he was not as big as the flabby loudmouth's three hundred pounds. "We're missing the game, and you're making the lady uncomfortable."

"What lady?" said the jerk. "I see a big-assed bitch, but I don't see no lady."

Joe reached out, grabbed the guy's jacket, and held it tight under his chin. I put my badge up to his face and said, "Big-assed cop, you mean."

I signaled to the stadium cops, who were jogging down the stairs. As the loudmouth was roughly hustled up the steps over encouraging shouts from the fans around us, I realized I was panting, adrenaline flooding through my veins all over again.

I had been a nanosecond from pulling my gun.

Joe put his arms around me and said, "What about it, Linds? As the man said, let's get a room."

"Great idea," I said. "I've got one in mind."

Chapter 100

THE CURTAINS IN our bedroom were stirring with a light breeze coming in through the cracked-open window. Joe had cooked for us, bathed us, admired my "perfect bottom," and wrapped me in terry cloth.

He wouldn't let me do a thing.

I was on my back in the center of the bed, looking up at him, huge and gorgeous in the soft light coming from the desk lamp and the streetlight outside.

"Don't move, Blondie," Joe said.

He tossed his towel over the door without taking his eyes off me. My breathing had quickened, and I fumbled with the belt that cinched my robe at the waist.

"What did I tell you, Linds? Doctor's orders. Don't move."

I laughed as he stretched out on the huge bed beside me.

"My nose itches," I said.

"I've got an itch, too."

"Okay, goofball."

"Goofball, huh?"

He turned onto his side and kissed my neck, a certain way he has of getting me from zero to sixty. I reached up to put my arms around his neck, and he put them back down. "Lie still."

He undid my robe and shifted me-and then we were both naked under the covers.

We lay entwined, facing each other, my leg hooked over Joe's hip, his arms wrapped entirely around me, my cheek in the hollow of his neck. I felt safe and very loved and had a sense of wonder that after all the ups and downs we'd weathered, we'd arrived at this wonderful state.

Joe gathered my hair and twisted it around his hand, then kissed my throat. He reached around me and pulled me closer. I made a small adjustment with my hips so that he could enter me. For a moment, I forgot to inhale. I was at the edge of a precipice, and I didn't want to stop.

"Hang on a sec," Joe said, reaching across me to open the drawer in the nightstand. I heard the crinkle of the foil-wrapped packet, and I put my hand on his arm and said, "No."

"I'm just getting dressed here."

"No. Really. Doctor's orders. Don't."

"Hon? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Joe kissed me deeply and, while holding me tight, rolled us both so that I was lying on top of him. I raised myself up and folded my knees along his sides, placed my hands on his chest, and looked into his face. I saw the light in his eyes-his love for me. He put his hands on my hips, and, with our eyes wide open, we rocked slowly, slowly, no hurry, no worry.

There was no place I'd rather be.

No one I'd rather be with than Joe.

Chapter 101

I WAS AT my desk when Brenda buzzed me on the intercom. "Lindsay, there's a package downstairs for you. Kevin doesn't want to send it up without you checking it out."

I took the stairs down to the lobby and found our security guard waiting near the metal detector. He held an ordinary black nylon computer case, my name on a label, many yards of clear packing tape wound around it. I wasn't expecting a package. And I sure didn't like the look of this one.

"I ran it through the metal detector," our security guard said. "There's metal in here, but I can't make out what it is."

"Where did this case come from?"

"I was checking people through, a whole bunch of kids from the law school, looking in camera bags and so forth, and when I turned around, this case was on the table. Nobody claimed it."